Panel 5 Highlights

Panel 5: Trust No One

Mark Edwards | Chris Ewan | C L Taylor | Louise Voss

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Selected quotes from live Q&As with readers:

Louise Voss: One bit of advice that really stuck with me was that you don't have to start at the beginning, or write sequentially. I can't remember who told me that, but it really helps with writer's block - if I get stuck, I will jump ahead and write an entirely different scene. (Much easier these days too, with the advent of Scrivener.)

Mark Edwards: In writing, I think what I do is called the 'driving in the dark' method. You can only see the part of the road illuminated by your headlights. Beyond that, everything is shrouded in darkness.

Chris Ewan: My favourite thing is writing the first 5 or 6 chapters of a first draft. After that, it's a case of good days and bad days. I'm maybe weird in that I love editing. I like that feeling of gradually making the work a bit better, and cringing a bit less.

Cally Taylor: There are days when I feel stressed or scared or claustrophobic for hours after a writing session has ended because I am still rooted in my character's mood but I love writing tense, gripping fiction.

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Notes from round table discussion between authors

The panel began with a chat about crossing genres. Cally has moved from romcom fiction to psychological thrillers, but changed her name for the new genre, but had been touched by the number of readers who had taken the leap of faith with her and picked up the new genre and enjoyed as much as the rom coms. Louise has also written in different genres. She will be relying more on jacket design to launch into a different genre. This lead into conversation about the importance of book covers, and how attached you can get to a design. Louise wasn’t sure about re-doing her covers but now she’s seen the new designs, she’s totally on board.

The authors discussed the panel title “Trust No One” and its relationship to the authors' work and real lives. Chris: “It's so hard to rationalise betrayals [in real life], probably because they often don't make any sense to us. Which, ironically, is the exact opposite of how a betrayal needs to work in a book, where it's important for everything to seem completely credible and understandable.”

Louise: “I've always thought truth is stranger than fiction, but actually your theory makes a lot more sense. In a novel you have to be able to rationalise it, and saying 'well she's a psychopath' just isn't enough, plot wise.”

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